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Now, bring on the questions, baby!
edited 11th Apr '18 6:31:51 PM by dRoy
Convert the price to US dollars back then (possibly using a historic gold cost lookup chart), and then run it through an inflation calculator? It'll be pretty imprecise, but it's better than nothing.
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.Divide the total worth of the gold at that time by the price per ounce of gold (at that time) to obtain the total number of ounces involved (or pounds, whatever). Multiply by the current price of gold per ounce (etc.) to obtain the current value.
Historical prices of gold are here.
In 1945 that was $34.7 per ounce. Today it's $1,356.
edited 22nd May '13 11:40:40 AM by demarquis
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."Much thanks!
... I don't suppose any of you know if there are any rough minimum estimates of just how much private gold and other valuables the Nazis had stolen from individuals and private groups, do you? Wikipedia says that nobody knows with any degree of accuracy about the total number, but I'd surprised if no one had at least tried to define some rough range for guesstimation purposes, just like with the disputes on the total number of WWII casualties.
edited 22nd May '13 11:43:08 AM by MarqFJA
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.Define "normal". It's the market.
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."Gold prices were set by law up until, oh, I want to say, sometime in the late 1970s. Then the legal price restrictions were removed and the market was what determined the price.
So the answer to your question "is that normal?" is "Yes and no". Yes, it's normal for a valuable commodity that is kept under outside price controls to jump enormously in price when those controls are removed, but no, even under those circumstances, gold is far more volatile than most commodities.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.Gotcha.
... I don't know if this is the best place to discuss this, but here's a new question: How can one create a Lighter and Softer version of Those Wacky Nazis and Dirty Communists that does away with the definitely Morally-Black atrocities and madness, and dials the whole thing down to an acceptable level of Moral Grayness? After all, a Mirror Universe where the Good guys are Evil and the Evil guys are Good, like the DC Multiverse's Crime Society of America universes, must logically have a non-abominable version of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
And then there, of course, the possibility of designing non-villainous/antagonist characters with explicit Nazi/Communist themes, whether its for the Badass factor (would you really want to get into a fight with a battle-hardened Waffen-SS / Soviet Spetsnaz commando?) or, as with most female characters I've seen in this role, for Fanservice / Fetish Fuel (AKA "Nazi chic" / Nazisploitation).
edited 22nd May '13 5:39:49 PM by MarqFJA
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.Stupid question that I probably should have learned in grade school but.
Showing possession with words that end in an S sound. For instance, the princess. If there is a single princess that owns something, how would you show possession?
Both princess's and princess' are grammatically correct, according to The Chicago Manual of Style (in fact, it recommends the former); things may change if it's a classical/Biblical proper name, however. See here and here for more info.
edited 22nd May '13 6:36:28 PM by MarqFJA
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.Thank you!
Huh. Here I thought princess' was the only correct form.
edited 22nd May '13 7:04:19 PM by DeMarquis
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."That said, I think it is the more prevalent form.
edited 22nd May '13 7:10:55 PM by peasant
I have this rather superficial, extraneous question. Since I'm scientifically illiterate, I don't understand Raleigh scattering or whatever it's called. Would the color of a star (e.g. blue) affect the color of the sky on a planet? If not, what does?
Also, and this is rather more pertinent, would a ten percent increase in gravity have severe consequences to an individual's physical performance?
Raleigh scattering would become green if the star was very red-hued.
A 10% increase of gravity would decrease someone's physical prowess a bit, I assume.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanI think you will get much more competent answers if you ask this in the "Understanding how stuff works sci-fi-ish-ly" thread in World Building, or even the "Space" thread in On Topic Conversations.
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."I shall head there. I'm still naive in the forum business...
Also, thanks Septimus.
Does anyone know for sue if there really were Black Vikings? I've read references to this.
The road goes ever on. -Tolkien[DELETED]
edited 26th May '13 6:11:38 AM by MorwenEdhelwen
The road goes ever on. -TolkienIt's not impossible. Vikings ranged as far as the Byzantine empire, where they became the Varangian Guard, and the Byzantines were in contact with the great Arab empires. It's not inconceivable that a black man might make his way up through Egypt and the MENA region, to the Byzantine empire and thence to the Vikings.
Of course, that's just for the Varangian Guard and the like. Up in the Viking home countries, much less likely.
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.Biologically speaking, what would happen to a cold-blooded creature, such as a lizard, if its body temperature remained too low for too long?
It's biological functions will slow (digestion, heart rate, breathing), and it will become lethargic due to lack of energy. Essentially, every part of it will slow, and this will continue as long as the temperature is low. Over time, it's cells will start to lack the full nutrients and other chemicals it'll need, and it won't be able to feed as well because it can't move as quickly as it needs to.
Now, this depends on the species. Some species will go into torpor at this point, effectively hibernation until temperatures improve. Most other species, their metabolic processes will drop, they won't be able to get the food they need, and they will die if temperatures don't improve soon.
http://www.fictionpress.com/s/3007268/4/The_Legion_of_Justice Superheroes! What could go wrong?Morwen Edhelwen: You can edit your own posts, no need to add another post
My latest Trope page: Shapeshifting FailureA few coldblooded animals uses urea, glucose, glycerol and even ethanol as cryoprotectant and Antifreeze. With the right temperature (around 0c) they could hibernation a few month with no real problem.
Some other coldblooded animals also hibernate but they need the temperature to be above freezing.
So it depends.
edited 26th May '13 4:15:18 AM by m8e
There was a sitewide glitch around that time that prevented post-editing and page-editing.
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
How does one measure the current worth of a specific sum of money that was assessed several decades ago, or that of a specific monetary value of something like gold? I'm trying to pin down just how much the official estimate of "known Nazi Gold" — i.e. the gold that was expropriated by Nazi Germany from foreign governments during WWII (amounts to $550 mil) — would be worth today.
edited 22nd May '13 10:19:45 AM by MarqFJA
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.